


Bip Meets Skull

by Waywocket



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Death, Guns, only at the very start, then it's just weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25808488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waywocket/pseuds/Waywocket
Summary: Skull has work to do that leaves him in sorry shape, so he heads to a closed scrap yard to try to patch himself up. Just when he thought his gears were gonna grind to a halt a robot made our of scrap pieces carries him off. And they won't stop talking.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 2





	Bip Meets Skull

Sometimes getting someone to pay a debt was easy. Sometimes it wasn’t. They hadn’t paid in too long, went into hiding sometime after. Skull hated having to hunt people down, took too much time. 

What was worse, when he finally found them, they weren’t alone. Three guys that managed broader shoulders than his. He’d be impressed, if he could be bothered to care. Or if they didn’t have heavy pipes in hand.

Skull wasn’t unreasonable. He offered the man a chance to pay up before taking him out. A kindness that was rewarded with a pipe heavy against his head. Things got a little blurry after that.

They got another hit in before he could pull out Suzi, and things got a little loud. Skull was faster, but they outnumbered him by far. He fell when they got his leg at the knee and bent it in. Shooting in the direction he thought they came from he was still on the ground a moment while he waited to see what came next.

Silence wasn’t what he was expecting, but it’s what he got. Sitting up, he saw the lot of them laid on the ground. At least his accuracy was still up to snuff. Meant he got to go home. Once he figured out how.

Looking down at himself, he scowled. Skull was a mess, from dents and bends and all the oil. It would take him ages to get the oil out and patch them up. It might be worth tossing the suit, he briefly thought as he pulled himself up to his feet. Not the coat though, he liked that.

Leaning against the wall for support, he sighed a thick plume of smoke. That was a problem, a burst pipe probably. He’d have to hope he could get back to the manor before he ran out of oil. 

Rolling the bodies, he checked the hideout for any cash or anything of value he could quickly pawn off. He didn’t expect much pay for leaving the bodies, but that was their problem. The only thing he was worried about was keeping powered on. The last thing he needed was winding up on some table and someone finding out about green matter.

He didn’t get far before the oil leak started to slow him down. Skull was going to have to find a shop and scare them into some quick repairs. It was late, so he didn’t know if he’d find something, but he had little else for choice.

Which turned out worse than he expected. Not only could he not find an open shop, he couldn’t find a shop to begin with. Seething, smoke filtered out his neck and through clenched teeth. He was going to grind to a halt soon if he didn’t find something.

Something turned out to be an old-looking scrapyard. Maybe not ideal, but it would do. Just so long as he could find a way in.

Pulling himself over the fence when one leg did little more than hang there was a trick, but he managed. Landing on the other side, he stumbled and crashed into a pile of scrap. 

Cursing to himself, Skull pushed himself back to his feet. The last thing he needed was to have to chase off some damned yard dog. Or worse yet, an over nightguard, he’d have enough of a beating.

The scrapyard at least seemed quiet, maybe he could get something accomplished. If only he could properly move. 

The lack of oil was making it hard, and his motions were jerky, and he could hear his gears grinding together. Not that it stopped him completely. All the chips were out, he either lived through this, or he didn’t.

By sun-up, he had at least found some parts, but the yard was a maze, he wasn’t even sure which way a building was, let alone tools. Skull was in a bad way, and worse yet, he heard a voice.

“Spider, I don’t think there’s anyone here. If they got in, they must have gotten out while we were looking. What do you think?” 

There came a whirring and a few beeps that Skull wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a response or not. 

Staying behind a pile of metal that was big enough to hide him, he tried to wait them out. At least until everything got blurry and the world started to spin in his head. Holding his head in both hands, he groaned softly and collapsed into the pile, knocking it over and nearly onto the other robot.

Wait, the other robot? He tried to keep his eyes on them while they yelped and jumped back. A flat cap over a curly dark wig, he couldn’t see much of their face. The arms and legs were patches of different metals. This was bad, they were staring at him.

“Oh my gosh! Another robot! Spider, do you see? There’s another robot, and he looks like me. Well, no. But he looks more like me than you do. No offense.”

A shrill sound.

It didn’t help matters at all, and he held his head tighter, trying to stand back up. He looked and there was a small robot clinging to their overalls, cowering on their shoulder. It looked like an oversized spider. Before he could do anything else, they were at it again.

“Hey, mister! Are you from outside? I’m Bip! Well, I mean, I guess you are you’d have to come from out there. I’d notice if someone built a robot here!” They laughed. “Did you get scrapped too? Oh! You’re who snuck in aren’t you? Yeah, that explains it, huh? But why? I mean, why would a robot want to come here. Well, I guess I did. Not that I had a choice though! Mostly stuff just gets crunched down or melted. Oh! Maybe you came for parts? That would make sense, I look around for parts when I’m wearing down. No better place! But you really shouldn’t just jump the fence, you know. It’s stealin’ if you don’t come in and pay like yer, ‘spose to, you know.”

They kept talking, Skull couldn’t keep up with them, it was a blur, a buzzing sound. It felt like they were going to talk until their jaw fell off, and he’d grind to a permanent halt.

Thick plumes of oily smoke poured out of his mouth and neck while he talked. “Shut up.” His voice was harsher with all the build-up, thick and gruff.

They jumped up at that and stopped mid sentence. “Sorry! Just, I’ve never seen another robot before. Well, other than Spider here.” They gave the small machine a light pat while they still refused to do more than peek over their shoulder.

Skull watched them curiously, but only for a moment. There was a loud grinding noise, and he dropped to his knees before falling into the dirt. Just before he powered down completely he felt them lift him up and drag him away. 

What a way to go, he thought. At least his core would probably ruin this place, some form of justice.

When he powered on, he was surprised, to say the least. Briefly, he remembered thinking he was dead, but not much else. His head was spinning and foggy as he tried to remember what had happened, how long had it been?

Looking around, he tried to sit up. The room was cluttered and messy. He would have assumed it was a storeroom if not for the futon he was laying on. Sturdy thing too, it didn't even bow with him on it. 

The thing that brought his memory back was the spider. When he moved the little machine scurried off and knocked over a box of tools. The little guy was on the other robot’s shoulder. The one that grabbed him!

“Damnit!” He had to get out of there before they came back. He didn’t need to risk waiting around for them to come back and find out about his core. The sooner he was out of here the better.

Still trying to pull himself to his feet, Bip ran in and quickly shut the door behind them.

“I haven’t finished fixing you yet, lay down!” They hissed as they hurried over to try and get Skull to lay back down.

“What the fuck are you gonna do with me, ya damned scrap heap?” He snapped as he pushed back and knocked them back into a pile of books.

Landing on their rear Bip looked offended more than bothered, briefly looking down at their arms in miss-matched metals. They stood up and brushed off their overalls. “Trying to fix you?”

He scoffed at that and managed to get to his feet, at least briefly. As soon as he was vertical he tipped forward as his leg gave out on him.

Bip rushed forward and caught him with a grunt and a clang. They could manage, but Skull was still one of the heaviest things they’d have to lift. “Careful They don’t know you’re in here,” they whispered.

“The fuck are you talking about?” Skull hissed as flopped back onto the futon with a groan. None of this had worked out the way it should have. 

“The humans. You passed out in the scrapyard because you lost so much oil. I was afraid of what they would do when they saw.” Bip looked worriedly at the green matter in his chest.

It didn’t take long for Skull to twig what they meant. He knew how dangerous green matter was, he didn’t have to be reminded of what he was. 

“Yeah yeah,” he scoffed and waved a hand dismissively. “It’ll rot a human through and melt metal. So leave it,” he warned sternly and gave Bip a hard look that made them flinch.

“Oh I know,” chirped Bip cheerily after a moment. Something that made Skull a bit uncomfortable. Holding up their scrap work hand, they showed off where some parts had started to melt and disfigure. “Spider had that green light too when I found him.”

He stares at them both in disbelief. The spider had crawled back to hide behind Bip’s shoulder again, trembling slightly. On his underside shone a purple light. He’d never heard of purple matter before. But more importantly, “had?”

They hummed the affirmative and beamed up at Skull. “We’re pretty sure he came on the lead crate we got a while ago. Everyone was freaked out over it and what was in it I guess we never noticed. He showed up shortly after.”

They held out a hand and let Spider crawl on them, even if they still seemed to shake. “He was very lethargic at first. He would run if he saw the humans, but otherwise, he hardly moved and just stayed with me. Everyone wanted him to go away. The humans got sick too if they got too close. Said he was too dangerous. The first time I tried to fix him, he had a crack in his power indicator light.”

Skull tilted his head slightly. “He had a crack in what?”

Bip tilted Spider to show off the purple glowing matter core. “His power light. You know, like you have a green one and mine's white.” They tugged down their shirt to show off the white matter core.

“There was a crack most the way through it. I tried to change the glass, and well,” they held up their hand again to show the melting again. “It actually was a lot worse, but I managed to change the rest of it.”

They waved to get Skull to lay back down to get back to work on fixing him up. Something that made Skull uncomfortable, he didn’t know anything about them, and they were working on his insides. Talk about a desperate situation.

“They were on a hunt for him for a while, but I kept Spider hidden. I got really worried they’d eventually find him and take him away. There’s no other robots here, and it gets lonely when you can’t sleep like a human. I got so worked up my light kicked into overtime. It got so bright I couldn’t see, and I got really tired. I actually powered down for nearly a week. Everyone was freaked out, no one knew what to do so they just laid me down and waited. Eventually, I came back on and Spider’s light was fixed, and purple! It was really weird, but I guess I shouldn’t complain, huh?”

Skull could barely keep up with what they were saying. The kid was as bad as Hare for yappin’, but at least he didn’t have to talk. Maybe this would be over quickly.

“I think it’s why the humans in suits come, but no one tells me, just sends me to my room. They’ve been around a lot, lately. Them and the green skin men.”

That made him sit up a little and look at them strangely, he knew what that sounded like. They wanted their property back. That made this stop a lot more dangerous Spider likely wasn’t meant to get scraped, Beciles would do illegal dumping after all. This kid really didn’t know anything about the matters, even though they had two even he’d never heard of. White matter was something else, Becile Inc would want to get their grubby hands on them if they knew.

While he thought about the matters he didn’t notice Bip had stopped talking. At least until he heard them start again.

“I’m sorry,” mumbled Bip, shrinking back a little.

That wasn’t something he was used to hearing. Raising a brow, or as much as someone without a face could he looked down at them. “Did you break something?”

Bip quickly shook their head, grabbing their cap before it flew off. “Nu-uh. The guys get annoyed with me talking too much too. I’ll fix you up, but you have to wait until they go home to leave.” Head down, they kept working to make sure his wires and pipes were right.

He actually felt a little bad when it wasn’t Hare he was scolding. He hadn’t even scolded them. Crossing his arms, he sighed a long cloud of coal smoke but had to stop and cough. Low coal, the fire was dying. Something he hadn’t thought about with the oil leaking.

“Right!” Bip jumped up fast enough they had to wave their arms to keep balance and giggled. They went around a pile of, well Skull didn’t know what half of it was, and came back with a large bag of cooking charcoal. “Sorry if it’s not right. But it’s the only stuff we have.”

They put it down next to him and ripped open the top before pointing to a large jug of water nearby. “I run on water. This is just the stuff they keep around when the foreman wants to have a cookout instead of work.”

“Must be easier,” he said flatly and swallowed a few pieces. Wouldn’t be as good, but it was something to burn at least.

“I dunno, I never tried. I guess so?” Before they could get back to work there came a loud knock on the door. 

“Hey, Bip! What are you doing? You’ve been in here all day!” Came a gruff voice from the other side of the door. Before they could open it Bip rushed out and shut the door behind them.

They were talking, but Skull hardly heard them through the door. Instead, he watched Spider as they crawled curiously on the bag of charcoal. Only to fall in as he toppled it over. He knew matter could be refined, that show off Peter the first had done it when he made those show-offs. Never when it was in a robot or machine though.

As much as he wanted to know, he knew he had more important things to be worrying about. He didn’t need anyone else knowing he was here. And he didn’t need to be owing a scrapbot any favours. He had enough work to do. He was so lost in thought, he didn’t hear the door open.

“I don’t think I can turn you purple.”

He jumped and quickly looked at Bip when they jolsted him from his thoughts. “What, no. Just tryin’ ta figure out how. I don’t need anybody messing with my- I don’t need anyone messing with that.”

“I just wanted him to be okay. The green light was broken and making him and everyone else sick.” Sitting down against Bip picked up their tools.

If they didn’t know about matter, he wasn’t about to teach someone. “Is the coast clear?” He’d been too long in a place that wasn’t the manor, he was actually starting to miss the place.

“Yep! But your leg’s still broken,” they reminded him and tapped on the leg to prove their point.

He huffed and looked it over, his left leg was twisted, and he had dents, and new pieces? “The hell did ya do to me?” He barked, billowing more smoke again.

“Patched you up!” They retorted with a huff and crossed their arms. “I think I did pretty good work.”

He ran his hand over where there was obviously new metal. But there wasn’t a welding seam or screws, it was like that part of him had just been polished. What kind of trick what this? He had holes in his leg before.

Looking at Bip in disbelief, he finally got a good look at them and all their miss-matched pieces. No screws or welding seams. Even the soda can on their cheek just became another kind of metal. Was that more of that white matter business? Instead of asking, all he did was grunt. No use asking questions and getting involved.

Bip took that as a cue to get back to work. It was quiet for a little while before they broke the silence. “What were you doing in the scrapyard anyway?”

“Parts.”

Laughing Bip’s shoulders slumped a little. “Yeah, okay. I guess that was obvious, but before that?”

“Had a fight.”

Tilting their head softly, they glanced up at him. “Oh? Who were you fighting with?”

“People.”

With a huff, Bip pouted at the short answers, but they kept working. “Don’t talk much do you?”

“No.”

They whined loudly at that, arms flopping to their sides. “Aw, come on!” With a pout, they looked up at Skull with pleading eyes.

When Bip pushed the issue he glared down at them and crossed his arms over his chest. Bip tucked their head and looked outright sheepish, and he sighed. Shoulders slumping, he pressed a finger against the bridge of his nose. It felt like kicking a puppy. At least Hare fought back. “Why are you so nosy?”

“I’m curious,” they mumbled as they got back to work on his leg. Obviously, they didn’t want to give any answers. Now they didn’t want to talk, of course.

Watching them again, he paid more attention to what they were doing. They seemed to be fiddling at random, but it was working. It only had to last until he got back to Riker, he could make the man figure it all out then.

After a while, Bip stopped when they felt him watching them and put their hands in their lap. “I’ve never been out of the scrapyard before. Well, I was. But I don’t have any memory before waking up here. Might have never turned on, and they just dumped me.”

Skull sat on that a bit, he didn’t get out much, but never? A whole life in one area would make anyone mad, he supposed being curious was a better outcome. “How long have you been here?” He asked after a long moment.

Shrugging, their arms flopped a little with a clang. “Dunno, they didn’t find me right away when I woke up. More than thirty years?” They were hardly sure themselves.

Humming, he crossed his arms again while he thought about that. 

“They won’t let me leave. Won’t say why,” they said quieter while they got back to work. Bip was nearly finished.

There was a long lapse of silence while he let them work. Skull just wanted out of here, it had been a few days already. They guys had probably burnt the place down while he had been gone. Much as he thought that, curiosity got the better of him, and he studied the pieces on their chassis again. The different pieces were messy and uneven, but not a mark or weld like it was all one piece of metal. It was almost like they’d been melted and left to cool. That wasn’t right either, but he just couldn’t figure it out.

“How do you do that?” He eventually asked. It was none of his business, and the less he knew the better, but still, he wanted to know.

Bip’s head snapped up at the question and looked at him. “Do what?”

“All your pieces aren’t welded, they look like one piece of metal.”

Laughing, Bip shook their head. “I dunno! I just find a piece and grind it down to fit, hold it there for a bit, and it’s good as new! Bending it into shape can be hard though.”

His eyes went wide at that disclosure. He was starting to piece together why they stayed in the scrapyard. “You’re better off in here,” he mentioned offhandedly. Anyone would be glad to tear them apart if they knew. Or put them to work.

“You sound like the old foreman and his son.” They didn’t look up, spoke flatly, while they went back to his leg.

A thick plume of smoke curled from his neck. “Well, cuz they’re right. World’s a real piece of work out there and not the good kind,” he reasoned and huffed. Why was he bothering?

Bip didn’t say anything, Skull should be happy but, he got that kicking a puppy feeling again. He let the silence stretch on for a while. For once, it made him uncomfortable.

When it got too much, “aren’t they gonna be mad if metal disappears?”

Bip looked up at him with an amused look before pointing at their face. “They’ll just assume I needed parts. Which is what I’d tell them if they asked. But they won’t. They don’t seem to pay that close attention to what’s in here.”

“Doesn’t sound like good business,” he huffed.

Bip shrugged “I just sort the scrap and guard the yard. It’s not my job to think about it.” They ignored the way Skull tilted his head and finished his leg. “There we go! Should be better, try and stand on it.” Standing up Bip offered him a hand.

Waving off the hand, he slowly pulled himself to his feet. Straightening out he had to catch himself as he wobbled. Grunting, he straightened his shirt. “I’ve had worse.”

Hands out, Bip was ready to catch him if he fell. Watching him struggle to find his balance they winced. “Sorry. I don’t have a lot of practice”

“It’s fine.” He’d just have Riker fix him when he got back. He needed to get out of there. He was unsteady on his feet but he started to the door.

Bip was reluctant, but opened the door and guided him out to the entrance. “Just be careful. If you’re that unsteady it might not last.”

Skull didn’t say anything just lifted a hand to wave as he walked out. It was still a long trek back to the manor, and he didn’t want to waste a second longer. That had been an ordeal that he wasn’t sure he wanted to relive. But if they ever needed parts. So long as no one else knew about Bip. He wouldn’t wish that on them.


End file.
